Fox Glacier

So this past weekend I went to Fox Glacier (about an 8 hour drive to the west coast from Dunedin) with Sarah, Tristan, Conor, and Kev. It was AMAZING. We pretty much spent Friday and Sunday driving and did a full day on the glacier on Saturday. I didn't realize before we got there, but not only were we walking on the glacier, but we were going ice climbing (like rockclimbing except on ice walls)! It was CRAZY and kind of scary, but really cool. We had crampons (spikes) on our shoes to dig into the ice and axe-type things to help us climb. It was pretty difficult and we were definitely sore the next day (especially our knees because everytime we fell our knees would bang into the ice). There was one ice wall we started on and then we move to a big hole in the ground that we climbed out of. They also found a tunnel/ chimney type thing that we could go down into and climb out of - pretty amazing! At one point I got pretty shaken up because I was belaying Conor (ie. holding the rope that was keeping him alive) and it was my first time belaying and I lost balance, fell against the ice and thought I was going to drop him....which would not only severely hurt him, but he would have fallen straight on me. Needless to say, I was a little shaken up...good thing Conor was calm even though I nearly killed him! A couple climbs later (clearly not fully recovered from the trauma) I was midway up a difficult climb and just burst out laughing...if you know me well, you know that I can have non-stop laughing fits for long periods of time....this was one of them. I literally was in the middle of climbing on the ice and could not stop laughing for atleast 5 minutes, which I'm told was very entertaining! On another climb that went from the bottom of a hole, there was a slight waterfall that went down the side of the wall I was climbing. Sarah and Conor had both gotten pretty wet on it so I was prepared for the same. However, when I finished my climb and got back down to the bottom, Kev, who was climbing the wall beside me, pushed me and I lost my balance and fell into the waterfall. I was in a position where I couldn't really move so I was stuck with water streaming down into all my clothes and soaking me for about a minute while everyone was entertained at my expense (nice friends...). It actually wasn't too cold, but it was definitely nice to get into a hot shower after that!
Other highlights of the trip included hitting a possum with the car (this is actually a good thing because possums kill the indigenous plants and animals in New Zealand so they encourage drivers to aim for possums), yielding to a herd of cows on the road, watching the stars during the night, and watching a severely injured hawk get hit by the car infront of us and fly through the air almost hitting us. The hawks are actually crazy - there were numerous times they would be on the road and we would almost hit them and they wouldn't flinch!
This week I am cooking dinner for Conor and Eli because I made a deal with them that if they came to step class (an hour long girl's exercise class on Wednesday morning at 7 a.m.) that I would make them dinner for a week. Not expecting them to actually show up, I was ecstatic to see them last Wednesday morning making a wholehearted yet hilariously uncoordinated attempt to do step class! It was amazing and VERY entertaining to say the least - I'm sure you can all imagine - step is pretty much a dance routine workout involving a step.
This weekend I'm off to Mt. Hut, which is about an hour South of Christchurch, to learn how to snowboard! There are about 20 of us going, and Jono, one of the Kiwi hosts in our complex, lives near the ski hill and is letting us all stay at his house!!! Exclamation marks for free accomodation (especially considering snowboarding costs...) and generosity! I'm really excited. I just have to finish a 3000 word essay first....